Officials in south Florida were in for a surprise last week when they cut open the belly of a 16-foot Burmese python they had captured and killed in the Everglades.
According to the South Florida Water Management District, the snake, which was a female, weighed 215.4 pounds with the deer, and 139.1 pounds without it. The girth of the snake's stomach, stretched to accomodate the carcass, measured a whopping 44.1-inches. From head to tail, the reptile measured 15.65 feet.
Bram Stoker’s private journal -in which he sketched out his first thoughts about his legendary creation Dracula -has been unearthed after more than 100 years.
The thin, unmarked book was discovered on a shelf in his great-grandson’s home on the Isle of Wight. It had been passed down by his ancestors for more than a century before arriving in Noel Dobbs’ home.
He was unaware of what the book was until a US researcher contacted him to ask if he knew about a journal his famous relative had written.
The Holy Grail: When Noel Dobbs found the journal he discovered his great-grandfathers thinking behind the Dracula character, played by Christopher Lee in 1958 film
Dobbs then dug out the tiny tome which was signed ‘Abraham Stoker’. There were 305 entries dating from 1871 when Stoker was in his 20s. Some are pages long, with others just a few sentences. The journal also contains romantic poems.
Today is Seven Billion Day, according to the United Nations. The day we resuscitate our fears about the population bomb. You can follow the countdown second by second online at www.worldometers.info/world-population.
It’s a stirring moment, and a scary one. In the past century, the world’s population has increased fourfold. And it is only 12 years since we marked six billion people.
But there are two things wrong with this landmark. First, we have no idea when the human race truly meets seven billion.
Guessing game: In reality, the world's population might not reach seven billion for another eight years
I don’t mean the UN could be a day or two out, or even a month or so. Many independent demographers say the UN has jumped the gun. Early 2013 is their best guess, but it could be as late as 2019.
The second problem is that all that hype about runaway population growth is wrong, too. It simply isn’t so.
The Seven Billion Day doesn’t really matter much. It’s just a PR stunt. But if we are getting today’s numbers wrong, then we are getting forecasts of future numbers wrong, too. And that could matter a great deal, misleading us about everything from climate change to our prospects for feeding the world – and maybe even about the long-term future of humanity.
The demographic doomsters – descendants of that great Victorian doom-monger, the Rev Bob Malthus – fear that the world’s population is destined to carry on rising through this century and on into the next, with Europeans ever more outnumbered by teeming hordes of Africans and Asians. But the truth is that big families are going out of fashion worldwide.
The stats suggest that we will most likely reach ‘peak population’ by mid-century. Then we could see falling numbers, with a shrivelling population of old people living in ghost towns with no young people left to care for them.
A Protestant church in California is coming under fire from some Christians over its upcoming conference featuring "guided meditations" by a high priestess of the pagan fertility goddess Isis.
Among the scheduled participants is Loreon Vigne, high priestess of Isis Oasis – a temple, retreat and animal sanctuary Vigne founded in 1978 in Geyserville, Calif.
"I personally see Isis as Mother Nature," Vigne told WND, "and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She's a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture."
Vigne, who plans to bring several other priestesses to the conference, will conduct prayers, songs and meditation.
"Guided meditation is where the audience closes their eyes and you take them on a little journey," she explained. "I've taken people to their past lives in Egypt, as [that culture] had all the secrets. They're the ones that knew. Their main concept is to know thyself, know thy heart, know thy soul and know thy purpose."
A depiction of the Egyptian goddess Isis and her son Horus
She says the belief system is based on the ancient Egyptian concept of balance, with 42 laws that are actually 42 ideals.
"It's kind of like a Ten Commandments, but all done in a positive concept," she said. "'I shalt not kill,' [is rendered as] 'I honor all lives as sacred.'"
Besides honoring the goddess, the staff of Isis Oasis also provides massage therapy along with tarot and astrology readings, according to its website.
But the San Francisco event blending non-existent, heathen deities with the Christian faith is leaving some outraged.
"God tells us in Exodus 20:3 'You shall have no other gods before me.' Yet this ELCA church brings followers of other gods in to speak and teach at their conference!"
Skogen said the ELCA leadership "accepts and promotes the thought that salvation is secured even for people who do not have faith in Christ."
"So bringing worshippers of Isis to this conference to teach is acceptable to them," said. "Of course, this is a distinct departure from the orthodox teaching of the Christian church."
Researchers from an Indiana university announced on Wednesday that they have been awarded with over $500,000 in grant money, which will be used to study how Americans use the Bible in their everyday lives.
Lilly Endowment Inc., a private foundation based in Indianapolis that focuses on philanthropy in the areas of community development, education and religion, awarded the grant to researchers at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis several weeks ago. More>>>>>>>
Two researchers see in the special topography of Jerusalem evidence that would require that we redraw our understanding of the geography of the city in ancient times.
There's an old cliche in Jerusalem that the city's most Tel Aviv-like street is Emek Refaim in the German Colony, with its wealth of cafes and boutiques. The reason, according to the cliche, is that the street is almost completely flat, like Tel Aviv streets.
True, the city's other main streets require some exertion on the uphill portions, but there are actually two researchers who see in the special topography evidence that would require that we redraw our understanding of the geography of Jerusalem in ancient times. More>>>>>>
Today there are three stories concerning the how far America has moved away from the God that made this country the strongest nation ever to exist in this world. (Jesus' name ruled 'unconstitutional' - North Carolina!
Congressman: Muslim Obama adviser leaked secret reports to media) From a judge in North Carolina who calls the name of Jesus "unconstitutional" to Muslim traitors working for our own government, attempting to destroy this nation, and a president who at least is a closet Muslim! We as Americans are staying silent, while Judges, Muslims, Communist and other Satan inspired evil people are spitting at the Face of God Almighty! Are we going to continue? Do we not realize that God will not hold us blameless, that we are all guilty of this grave sin against Heaven if we stay silent? Read what God is telling you today-- right now!
Leviticus 26
literally meaning“and He called” 26
Blessings for Obedience (also read Deuteronomy 28)
Forward: This chapter is for ISRAEL. This is for Great Britain, and The United States of America for today as much as it was in the days of Moses! This is our message. These are our warnings and blessings! The words of God are in RED. The Hebrew word for God is Yahweh, translated LORD. Yahweh is the personal name of Jesus Christ! (Read Exodus 3:14 AND John 8:58 as absolute proof of this fact!) Elohim is the uni-plural Hebrew name for the God FAMILY! It is one group containing more than one being!
1 Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the LORD(Jesus) your God(The Godhead-Jesus and The Father).
2 Keep my Sabbaths, and revere my sanctuary; I am the LORD(Jesus).
Blessing for obedience:
3 If you follow my statutes and keep my Commandments and observe them faithfully,
4 I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.
5 Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.
6 I will grant you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land.
{What a perfect picture of the USA in the 1850'5-1950's!}
7 In fact, you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords.
{ Until Korea-Vietnam, we didn't lose a war!}
8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath your sword.
9 I will turn toward you, make you productive, increase your numbers and uphold my covenant with you.
10 You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest!
{I remember as a child reading the World Book Encyclopedia and looking at the vast stores of grains in warehouses the size of little cities! We were the food basket to the entire world!}
11 I will live among you, and I will not despise you.
{God has been with us! He was welcomed by our fathers before us and it is God, and not our form of government that has made us so rich and the envy of the world!}
12 I will walk among you; I will be your God(Elohim/Theos), and you will be my people. {God has walked with us! He has been here! He can walk with you today! Be His friend, obey Him and he will walk with you too!}
13 I am the LORD(Jesus) [of the] God(Godhead), who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.
Punishments for DisobedienceThis has been our fate now for almost 50 years! We have forgotten our God and GOD's LAWS, and we are reaping our reward for it... Read that “reward” below.
14 However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands,
15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my statutes and treat my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my Commandments,
16 I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your alien enemies will eat them.
17 I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!
{Like President Obama and others to come, plus the Liberal Left who hates us! They despise who we really are! Now these, our enemies are ruling over us!}
18 And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.
19 I will break the pride you have in your own power by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze.
20 All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.
{Famine coming to the USA!}
21 If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins.
22 I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted.
23 And if, in spite of all this, you refuse my correction and still go against me;
24 then I{Jesus) myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins.
25 I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies.
{The invasion by our enemies in our own soil! Like 9-11}
26 I will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.
27 If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me,
28 then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins.
29 Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. { Cannibalism }
30 I will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your churches. I will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your lifeless idols, and I will despise you.
31 I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me.
32 Yes, I myself [Jesus HIMSELF} will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see. {Even our enemies will be shocked!}
33 I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.
{Our fate is that we will be overtaken by our aliens living among us and selling us into slavery, winding up in other foreign lands.}
34 Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.
35 Yes, as long as it lies desolate it will have rest, the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths, when you lived there.
36 As for those of you who are left, I will fill their hearts with anxiety in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will frighten them, so that they will flee as one flees from the sword and fall when no one is pursuing.
{PANIC ATTACKS.. Mass panic attacks will be caused by TERRORISM! Terrorism = panic!}
37 Though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though fleeing from a sword. You will have no power to stand up against your enemies.
38 You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.
39 Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
{We will be captives, probably Europe and the Middle East}
40 But if they confess their sins and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me—
41 so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their sins,
42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
44 But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the LORD(JESUS) their God(Jesus is God).
45 For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God(Jesus is God). I am the LORD(JESUS).'
46 These are the decrees, regulations, and instructions that the LORD(JESUS) gave through Moses on Mount Sinai as evidence of the relationship between himself and the Israelites.
Newspaper copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas was hit Wednesday with an order to pay $119,488 in attorney's fees and costs in its failed lawsuit against former federal prosecutor Thomas DiBiase. More>>>>>>>
The following Reagan messages are still applicable today:
"This idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man."
"This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
"You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well, I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down — (up) man's old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
"A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose.
"We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning.
"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear . . . Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth.
"Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy 'accommodation.' And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us."
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has long been a source of radical political thinking within the Catholic Church. This week's statement by the Council, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public,” confirmed the radical economic agenda of the leftist intellectuals who hold sway there.
Outside the classroom of a major university, it would be hard to find a more socialism-based economic plan than the one espoused in the statement.
Not only does it legitimize the various “Occupy” crowds, its criticism of capitalism goes beyond the Council’s past commentary on economics to call for nothing less than the abolition of economic freedom and the establishment of a new world economic system managed by the United Nations.
Famous Muslim cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni offers reward in response to similar cash prize offered by Israeli bereaved family. Hamas minister: Gaza pullout enables us to keep Shalit captive
A week after the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, top Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who kidnaps Israeli soldiers.
He is responding to an ad published by the Libman family offering a similar reward for anyone who catches the person who murdered their relative Shlomo Libman. Libman was killed by terrorists near the settlement of Yitzhar in 1998. MORE>>>
JERUSALEM – Turkey secretly passed a message to Damascus last week that if it does not implement major democratic reforms, NATO may attack Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, according to Egyptian security officials speaking to WND.
The Egyptian security officials said the message was coordinated with NATO members, specifically with the U.S. and European Union.
Assad has been widely accused of ordering massacres on militants and protesters engaged in an insurgency targeting his regime.
The Egyptian officials said Turkish leaders, speaking for NATO, told Assad that he has until March to implement democratization that would allow free elections as well as major constitutional reforms.
A year-long undercover sting investigation of an Amish farmer that included federal officials entering private consumers' residences. A California food co-op raided by officials with guns drawn and at the ready. A Georgia man forced to destroy over 100 gallons of high-quality farm fresh milk. What do all of these have in common? ....more
Where Raw Milk is Legal (and it should be everywhere!)
The world's population looks set to smash through the seven billion barrier in the next few days, according to the United Nations.
It comes just 12 years since the total reached six billion - with official estimates saying the figure will top eight billion in 2025 and 10 billion before the end of the century.
And it is most likely the baby will be born in the Asia-Pacific region - where the population growth rate is higher than anywhere else in the world.
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said. More>>>>>>>
A new document released on Monday by the Vatican’sPontifical Council for Justice and Peace has some people wondering if the Catholic Church is aligning itself with the Occupy Wall Street movement. But while some critics may embrace this notion, others flatly reject it.
Prior to the document’s release, Father Thomas Reese (who is often described as liberal), a fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, described the proposal as “closer to views of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement than anyone in the U.S. Congress.”
War is on its way in the Middle East as Muslim countries are determined to force a showdown over the future of Israel, Ronald Reagan’s assistant defense secretary Frank Gaffney warned in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview.
“I’m afraid there’s a war coming, a very serious, perhaps cataclysmic regional war,” he said. “It will be presumably over, at least in part, the future existence of the state of Israel. It may involve all of its neighbors, as they have in the past, attacking Israel to try, as they say, to drive the Jews into the sea.
“It may involve the use of nuclear weapons,” he predicted. “But whatever form it takes and whenever it occurs, it is unlikely to be contained to that region, and we must do everything we can to prevent freedom’s enemies from thinking they have an opportunity to engage in that kind of warfare.”
Wanda Bridgeforth was hit hardest on the home front as a child, when her parents couldn't afford to keep her with them. At one point she lived with 19 people—in a six room house. It was in these situations that she learned to conserve what she had, and reuse what she found.
"And they say, 'Well, what are you going to use this for?' and I say, 'I don't know, but I'm going to use it,'" Bridgeforth told NPR.
Today, individuals and companies would be wise to heed this advice. We can find resources in unlikely places, whether in the the scrap heap or the ideas of the unpaid college intern.
The 24-year-old Simoncelli had his helmet knocked off in the accident, which occurred when the Italian lowsided from his bike at Turn 11.
His bike veered across the track and straight into the path of Edwards and Rossi. The race was immediately red-flagged.
Simoncelli, who was motionless on the track after the impact, had been fourth at the end of lap one. Edwards also fell but escaped serious injury, while Rossi, on a Ducati, was able to return to the pits.
Most Americans have no idea why rare earth elements are important or why the Chinese monopoly on them is so dangerous. But now that China is enforcing strict new quotas on the export of these metals a lot more people are going to start learning about them.
Just consider a few of the products that use rare earth elements....
*Hybrid car batteries
*Flat screen televisions
*Cell phones
*iPods
*Radar systems
*Missile-guidance systems
*Satellites
*Aircraft electronics
*Smart bombs
*Electric car engines
Are you ready for a world without iPods or cell phones?
Well, that is what we would potentially be facing without these rare earth elements.
Now China has announced that they will be significantly cutting back on the export of these metals.
However, there are no export quotas on rare earth metals contained in finished goods from China.
So do you know what that means?
It means even more things will now be made in China.
The rest of the world can start to develop their own supplies of rare earth elements, but that is going to take time and it is going to be very expensive.
Meanwhile, China is going to be developing an increasingly tighter grip over the manufacturing of high-tech products.
That is quite a bit of leverage to have over the rest of the world.
Not only that, but this Chinese monopoly on rare earth elements is a direct threat to U.S. national security.
Today, China is the leading supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
Now how in the world did we allow that to happen?
We have seriously messed up.
China is one of our greatest strategic threats, and now we are dependent on them for high-tech military components.
China already has tremendous leverage over us because they own so much of our national debt, and now the ability to cut off our rare earth elements has given them even more of a strategic advantage.
So what are we going to do one day if they cut off the export of all rare earth elements and they cut off the export of all the high-tech components that our military needs?
What in the world are we going to do then?
In addition, putting Chinese components in so much of our equipment opens the door for all kinds of mischief.
But most Americans don't think that China is any kind of a threat at all.
Most Americans think that they are our dear friends.
The small percentage of Americans that actually are concerned about external threats are mostly fixated on Iran and on hunting down Islamic terrorists in caves in the Middle East.
But please, please, please do not take your eyes off of Russia and China.
Russia and China are increasingly developing closer economic and military ties. Their military planners openly talk about how a future war with the United States would go. In fact, many in the top brass in both those nations believe that such a war is inevitable.
The major thing preventing the Russians and Chinese from attacking the U.S. is our strategic nuclear arsenal. But now Barack Obama wants to cut it down to virtually nothing.
Most of you that are reading this will not be convinced. You will tell yourselves that China is not a threat. But just tuck this away in your memory and pull it out in a few years when things are taking a turn for the worse.
Russia and China are both rapidly becoming very powerful and they should be taken very seriously.
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